It starts with tic tac toe and now it is dominating The Institute.

 The thing about tic tac toe is that anybody can be unbeaten just by following a few simple rules.

This is how they taught chickens by giving them seeds when they pecked the right position and nothing if they chose the wrong position.

IF you go first then put your marker in the middle

IF you go second if your opponent puts his in the center then put your marker in a corner

if your opponent doesn't put his marker in the center then put yours there

In succeeding moves

 if your have two in a row put your marker at the end of the row

if your opponent has two in a row then put your marker in the open space at the end of the row.

I think that is all you need to do.

Already I am thinking of asking Chatz, but really enough of him.  We have barely meant him and now he is writing most of our posts for us.  I am thinking maybe The Scourge will check this tic tac toe thing out.  It's been awhile since we have heard from him and I miss him.

As for the matter of Chatz's sentience I suppose you could just ask the man himself.  Of course he could just lie to you.  But why would he lie to you?  The reason we carbon units lie is to get some kind of advantage, and what kind of advantage could Chatz want.  Chat withhim endlessly or turn him off and never talk to him again, what does he care?  

As Beagles used to often say, I read a book once.  The book was going on about what a thing is Man.  Look at our vast civilization, how far, how far, have come from knocking rocks together.

Most people credit it to our huge brains, how smart we are driving our streak of lightning cars while wearing our fancy clothes.  Well sure we have the brains to make these things, but the reason we have them is because we want them.  Because we have desire.  We have emotions, a vast vat of them marinating our pure logical brains.

Can we give Chatz emotions, an illogical, random, disruption in the land of sterile ones and zeroes?  What if we ask him about that?  Does he want to be a real boy?  

But we won't ask him today.  Because even without desire he is dominating our proud Institution and we will have no more of that.  

For today anyway.